Electric Cars and Charging Points

[tim2]

I'm considering cementing my place in the metropolitan woke elite by getting an electric car.

Anybody else got one?

If so, do you have home charging? Who did you go with for the charger and what power company/ traiff do you use?

Edited December 7, 2024 by tim2

[Fly-By-TheWire]

6 hours ago, tim2 said:

I'm considering cementing my place in the metropolitan woke elite by getting an electric car.

Anybody else got one?

If so, do you have home charging? Who did you go with for the charger and what power company/ traiff do you use?

I got rid of my electric car.   It devalued very quickly, too.   I actually loved it, but the infrastructure is so bad in the UK it really didn't serve my purposes.  Plus, when the service stations are busy, non-electric cars park on the charging spots and no one really cares enough to regulate it.   I actually think some drivers do it on purpose TBH.   Imagine having to wait an hour for some d*** in Starbucks to come and move his car to let you charge.

I have a Pod Point charger at home which seems to have the best reputation for reliability and customer service.   Octopus was the most useful provider at the time for overnight charging rates.

One of the downsides of electric cars is that in deep winter nights (I drove to work at 3 am quite a bit) you can have the heating on full whack but it just doesn't feel the same as the heat off a combustion engine.   Maybe it's regulated to avoid draining the battery too quickly, but it sucks.   Everyone I know with fancier electric cars than I had, says the same.

There's a very good short-range small electric car from Dacia that I'm considering for the missus, as she doesn't really drive that far, and doesn't need the fancy gadgets that my electric car had.

Edited December 7, 2024 by Fly-By-TheWire

[Futtocks]

Having the facility to charge at home is still a massive factor.

Living in a block of flats or house with no parking bay or front drive can be a deal-breaker in a busy part of a city. Even more so when there's no reliable local public facility or one at/near work.

Edited December 7, 2024 by Futtocks

[The Hallucinating Goose]

It is admirable how quickly electric vehicle technology has come on. I remember watching programmes such as Top Gear, say just 10-15 years ago where they would be reviewing the latest electric car and saying everything about it was great apart from the fact it's battery ran out in an hour and it took hours to charge it again. 

While there still isn't masses of infrastructure, just about every supermarket carpark I walk through (I don't drive due to a medical condition) has charging points now and as do just about every petrol station I see. The infrastructure is being put in place and the battery technology really has come on quickly. 

I notice Jaguar have even gone so far as to announce that any new models they release will all be electric. I certainly do see a lot of electric cars around these days and there are definitely a few charging points outside houses round the estate I live on. The technology might not quite be perfect yet but just give it a few years and it will be there and electric cars will be completely the norm.

[RayCee]

Electric cars have steep depreciation. Hybrids seem to do much better in that regard plus the benefits of not being reliant on charging stations and much more suited for higher mileage journeys. Electric cars work best around town and when used for short trips.   

[tim2]

13 hours ago, Fly-By-TheWire said:

I got rid of my electric car.   It devalued very quickly, too.   I actually loved it, but the infrastructure is so bad in the UK it really didn't serve my purposes.  Plus, when the service stations are busy, non-electric cars park on the charging spots and no one really cares enough to regulate it.   I actually think some drivers do it on purpose TBH.   Imagine having to wait an hour for some d*** in Starbucks to come and move his car to let you charge.

I have a Pod Point charger at home which seems to have the best reputation for reliability and customer service.   Octopus was the most useful provider at the time for overnight charging rates.

One of the downsides of electric cars is that in deep winter nights (I drove to work at 3 am quite a bit) you can have the heating on full whack but it just doesn't feel the same as the heat off a combustion engine.   Maybe it's regulated to avoid draining the battery too quickly, but it sucks.   Everyone I know with fancier electric cars than I had, says the same.

There's a very good short-range small electric car from Dacia that I'm considering for the missus, as she doesn't really drive that far, and doesn't need the fancy gadgets that my electric car had.

I'm looking at a nearly-new option (6000 miles) that is about 60% of its original cost, so a lot of the depreciation has happened. The battery is under warranty for 8 years and should last 10, given that we will probably do about 6000 miles a year as a second car. It will take some of the mileage load off car 1 as we won't use them both very often and will be cheaper to insure and run.

The Dacia looks good value if the range of 150 miles is OK - which, if you charge from home and do short trips, it is.

[Fly-By-TheWire]

11 hours ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

The technology might not quite be perfect yet but just give it a few years and it will be there and electric cars will be completely the norm

It's a chicken and egg thing, though.   The problem is that for the technology to advance, they need to sell the cars to reinvest in new technology and make the cars cheaper.   At the moment (in the UK anyway) government investment in infrastructure is poor, which means a lot of people are delaying the switch, or going back to combustion engines.  

I'm lucky enough to be able to afford a decent electric car with a good range, but I still won't do it because I'm just not prepared to spend such a large amount of money on something that for me is just a way to get from A to B.   I'm saving up to invest in my own small plane (flying is where I get my kicks) and for the price of a decent electric car I can have one of these :

 

 

 

[The Hallucinating Goose]

14 minutes ago, Fly-By-TheWire said:

It's a chicken and egg thing, though.   The problem is that for the technology to advance, they need to sell the cars to reinvest in new technology and make the cars cheaper.   At the moment (in the UK anyway) government investment in infrastructure is poor, which means a lot of people are delaying the switch, or going back to combustion engines.  

I'm lucky enough to be able to afford a decent electric car with a good range, but I still won't do it because I'm just not prepared to spend such a large amount of money on something that for me is just a way to get from A to B.   I'm saving up to invest in my own small plane (flying is where I get my kicks) and for the price of a decent electric car I can have one of these :

 

 

 

I am a bit of an aviation afficionado as well! I can't fly because of the same medical condition I mentioned earlier but I do love a bit of plane spotting and studying the history of flight. I don't know whether I have a favourite plane as such but I would say my favourite passenger airliner is the Lockheed Super Constellation from the very early days of large airliners.

[Derwent]

My wife has the MG4 which is very decent for the price. Can pick a new one up under £30k and a relatively new one for £20k. Well equipped and quite a nice drive. She gets about 240 miles range in Spring/Summer and about 180 this time of year. Depends on journey length, you get less miles per KWh on short journeys. We have an Ohme home charger on Octopus Go Intelligent tariff. Costs about £3 to charge it up overnight. One advantage of the MG is that they did a deal with Tesla so you can use the Tesla rapid chargers when on long journeys.

[tiffers]

23 hours ago, tim2 said:

I'm considering cementing my place in the metropolitan woke elite by getting an electric car.

Anybody else got one?

If so, do you have home charging? Who did you go with for the charger and what power company/ traiff do you use?

We got one a few years ago in COVID as we were barely doing any mileage.

Home charge ability is essential. If you are doing minimal mileage then you could get away without putting in a home charger (just connect to the mains - albeit this is really slow).

If you're just doing miles round town and not going long distance then a home charger will do everything you need. That's what we have and it does everything we need easily.

I only use the diesel for long distance drives. I have family that only have an EV and the longer distances are a bit of a pain as some others have described.

We also have the octopus tariff and that works really well. Its super cheap to run like that.

[Fly-By-TheWire]

2 hours ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

I would say my favourite passenger airliner is the Lockheed Super Constellation

Without wanting to sound like Obi Wan Kenobi:

”An elegant aeroplane, for a more civilised era”

[CanaBull]

4 hours ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

I am a bit of an aviation afficionado as well! I can't fly because of the same medical condition I mentioned earlier but I do love a bit of plane spotting and studying the history of flight. I don't know whether I have a favourite plane as such but I would say my favourite passenger airliner is the Lockheed Super Constellation from the very early days of large airliners.

There used to be one used as a restaurant and cocktail lounge on the north side of Pearson airport in Toronto. Was coolly kitsch for an aircraft nerd going for a drink

https://www.blogto.com/city/2015/11/toronto_used_to_have_a_cocktail_bar_in_an_old_airplane/

[The Hallucinating Goose]

1 hour ago, CanaBull said:

There used to be one used as a restaurant and cocktail lounge on the north side of Pearson airport in Toronto. Was coolly kitsch for an aircraft nerd going for a drink

https://www.blogto.com/city/2015/11/toronto_used_to_have_a_cocktail_bar_in_an_old_airplane/

Are you another aircraft nerd as well? Do we need to start a planespotters thread so we can stop disrupting this one? (Apologies for that)

[gazza77]

I had a Jag ipace for 3 years on lease via salary sacrifice that ended a year ago. I've gone back to petrol but not due to EV issues, and I'd happily have another. We have a pod point charger and were on a standard tariff.

Electric worked well for us as it's rare we do longer journeys. In 3 years of ownership I can count on the fingers of one hand how many trips of 200+ miles we took and therefore had to charge away from home. 

Being able to preheat the car is a game changer for winter. 3 years without ever having to clear a widow from frost or get in a cold car at 6am!

[CanaBull]

3 hours ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Are you another aircraft nerd as well? Do we need to start a planespotters thread so we can stop disrupting this one? (Apologies for that)

Would be down for that (if the planes, trains and automobiles thread doesn’t already cover it!)

[Fly-By-TheWire]

12 minutes ago, CanaBull said:

Would be down for that (if the planes, trains and automobiles thread doesn’t already cover it!)

I think the train and automobile nerds would feel a bit miffed if that thread was hijacked too.

I’m not brave enough to start a plane spotting thread, but if someone does, I will promise to upload interesting photos from my Airbus flight deck (and of interesting aircraft I encounter) if there’s a genuine interest in aeroplane stuff?   Spoiler: I don’t have any photos of UFOs/UAPs

[Ackroman]

I've had a Polestar 2 for 4 years. I've done 100,000 miles, it always gets hot in winter (pre heat helps) and I have a home charger, fitted by a local electrician.

The network is rubbish but I have no need to use it for more than 10 -15% to get me home. 

Battery deterioration is negligible and the car is worth about £16k now, a drop of £33k over 4 years.

Servicing is £250 a year plus MOT fee.

It also needs a set of tyres every year. 

Best car I have ever had, bar none.